This rendition of an OSU tsunami shelter prototype shows a large multi-story building on stilts, likely to lessen the impac of the base of a tidal wave crashing through its vicinity. (Source: Oregon State University)

There
have been no shortage of powerful and often, sometimes
catastrophically, deadly earthquakes in the past ten years. Sumatra,
Haiti, Japan, Chile and more have suffered to various degrees from
the results of plate tectonics and the roiling seas of magma far
below the surface of the planet. Though, in the US, California has a
reputation for being earthquake-friendly, it is a far cry from the
only threatened west coast state.

Based on data collected from
the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which lies off the west cost of North
America and runs from northern California up to British Columbia,
Oregon State University marine geologist Chris Goldfinger and team
says the chance of a quake of high magnitude, 8 or better,
is unsettlingly
high in the next fifty years. Using telltale signs of seismic
activity, they have mapped out a time line of major events for the
last 10,000 years. As it turns out, the pacific northwest is about
due for a major earthquake.

According to their findings, the
Cascadia has already gone past the 75% mark as far as a major event
within a generally rhythmic period of time. Over the past 10,000
years, they have found evidence of 41 large events, spaced at roughly
500 year intervals. Should no event occur in the next 50 years, the
chances jump to 85%. There is no doubt, feels Goldfinger, that the
event is coming -- it's just a matter of time.

At present, he
states there is an approximately 37% chance that a magnitude 8 or
greater quake will hit the southern section of the Cascadia
Subduction Zone, which runs from northern California to near Newport,
Oregon, in the next 50 years. Further north, the chance of an event
is less -- 10% to 15% -- but with a better chance of being much
stronger, magnitude 9 or greater.

Not all of the west coast is
oblivious to this sleeping giant. Not only would a sizable off-shore
event cause the standard stand-in-a-doorway building rumbling action,
it would most certainly create a powerful tsunami in its wake. The
last recorded high magnitude quake from the Cascadia was in 1700.
Though no records exist from the Americas, Japanese historians
recorded the ocean-traversing tsunami that reached their shore,
crashing down at 30 or more feet in height.

The town of Cannon
Beach, Oregon, is working with engineers from OSU to create an
earthquake
and tsunami shelter for its residents using advanced
construction techniques and an eye for vertical space to stand above
the wave. If completed, it may be the first tsunami shelter built
outside of Japan.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer